Microsoft Further Proves the Company Is a Man's World

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By Julissa Catalan

In mid-December, Microsoft released its diversity statisticsbut it did not publicize the release. Perhaps this is because the results not only reinforced CEO Satya Nadella’s recent comments about women in the workforce, but also because the company’s demographics are right in line with every other tech company.

Following the backlash Nadella received for his comments about women”It’s not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along. That, I think, might be one of the additional superpowers that, quite frankly, women who don’t ask for a raise have” Nadella met with Reverend Jesse Jackson and promised to diversify Microsoft.

Seventy-six percent of Microsoft’s overall workforce is male, with only 24 percent being female.

Sixty-one percent of the company’s employees are white, while Asians make up 29 percent. Latinos make up 5 percent, and only 3 percent are Black.

The gap widens even more at the management level. Eighty-eight percent of Microsoft execs are male, while 72 percent are white. Thirteen percent are Asian, 4 percent are Latino and 1 percent is Black.

The findings are unsurprising as they mirror the data from every other tech giant.

White employees at Amazon, Apple,Twitter,Yahoo!andGoogle range from 50 percent to 61, while Black and Latino employees range from 5 percent to 18 percent.

Women employees at these companies only range from 21 percent to 37 percent.

Just before Microsoft released it diversity data, Nadella released an internal memo saying, “These numbers are not good enough, especially in a world in which our customers are diverse and global,” adding, “We have work to do at Microsoft and across the industry.”

While Microsoft made efforts to promote job opportunities for women, Blacks and Latinos, which included creating a diversity and inclusion website last year, the percentage at which these groups were employed barely grew from one year to the next.

This year Microsoft only employed 1 percent less of whites compared to last year, while the number of employed Latinos only grew by 0.5 percent. The number of Black Microsoft employees was only 0.3 percent more than last year and Asians only 0.2 percent more.